Wishes for Great-Grandpa

At the end of October, Tim's grandpa (Bob) died--he had ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). We traveled to Hastings, Nebraska for the funeral and to be with family at this difficult time. While we were there, the kids (Bob's great-grandchildren) wrote messages to Great-Grandpa and attached them to balloons--Nick drew a sweet picture of himself and Great-Grandpa with hearts all around. Then they released them while we were visiting a WWII memorial that has Bob's name on it recording his time in the war. The kids also did a rubbing of his name on the stone memorial. They turned out really neat and the kids have a part of history.

We had a nice time in Nebraska even though we were all greiving the loss of Grandpa (Great-Grandpa to the kids). We know that Bob got their messages in heaven and cherishes each one.

Halloween Party

My sister, Terri, hosted her annual Halloween Party on Oct. 26th. We all really look forward to this super fun party. Emily was dressed as a Corpse Rock Star, Nick was a Phantom Alien Warrior and Matthew was a Clone Trooper. We had a yummy lunch, played games and enjoyed some spooky fun.

There was a costume contest (Emily won), a Ladder Ball tournament (Tim and Matthew's team won), pumpkin face painting (Matthew won) and a pumpkin ball toss (Nick won)--interesting how each kid won something:) Their Aunt Terri made them a Ghost in a Bottle to watch over them and protect them--they are really cool!!

Everyone had a great time!!! Our dog, Sammy, was there and he was dressed up as a bumblebee--he was so cute that he got a lot of scraps of food from Great-Grandma. We can't wait until next year.

Apples!

The kids had this past week off of school for conferences and MEA. We had a pretty low key week since I still had to go to class (college doesn't get MEA off--bummer!). The kids were with my parents on Tuesday and with my friend Sharon on Thursday while I attended my classes on those days. Being a stay-at-home mom, I don't have a regular daycare or babysitter but it all worked out with the help of family and friends:)

Anyway, on Friday the kids and I decided to go the Minnesota Harvest Apple Orchard. The weather was a little drizzly but we didn't mind. We took a tractor ride out to the apple orchard to pick our own apples. We decided to pick Regent apples which were marked by a white ribbon attached to the trees. We had fun running around looking for the white trees but when we would find them most of the apples were already picked or had fallen to the ground.

Needless to say, we put our tree climbing skills to the test! Emily and Nicholas would climb them to get to the apples that were still there--way up high on the tree! I even had to climb one since I am the tallest (not by much though--Emily is only 2 inches shorter than me!!). Matthew didn't climb any trees but he sampled the apples from the other trees while waiting for us to pick the kind we wanted:)

We had a blast in the orchard! Then we took the tractor back to the main building and pet some animals they had there like goats, sheep, etc. Then we got some yummy apple cinnamon donuts for the ride home. We had a memorable day (of course I took lots of pictures for my scrapbook--you know me!!).

Cub Scout Fall Festival

On Sunday, the boys and I attended a Cub Scout day camp called Fall Festival. There were lots of activities planned for the day, we did: making apple juice, BB guns, crafts, running an obstacle course--then lunch--riding horses, archery and finally kickball game.

We had a great time and I really enjoyed spending the day with my boys. They really liked the BB guns (what boy doesn't?), obstacle course (they ran it multiple times), horses, archery--actually everything. The apple juice was okay but there were lots of bees around the apples and the boys didn't like that! They made a birdfeeder and a paper jack-o-lantern thing at crafts. Matthew was nervous on his horse but then he relaxed and enjoyed it--I was leading his horse so that made him feel better (Nick had been to this camp before so he knew all about the horses)

We had a fun day but we were sure tired out by the time the camp was over. On the car ride home, Nick fell asleep right away but Matthew had his Nintendo DS with and he kept busy with that. Oh yeah, we also found a fuzzy caterpiller while at camp and the boys learned that they are my favorite fall creature!! When I was little, I use to play with them until all their fuzz fell off:)

Matthew is 7!!

Matthew turned 7 years old on Sunday, October 12th. He had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese on Friday. He picked CEC because, of course, GAMES!!! He had a few friends from school at the party and we had pizza, cake and played games. The kids really liked playing in the small play system of tubes and slides too. We had a nice group of kids and they all had a great time.

Matthew met a new boy in first grade this year named Joey and they became fast friends. I think they are clones of each other!! They both like all the same things including video games, they look relatively similar and even have some of the same mannerisms:) Their teacher thought they had known each other and been friends for years--even though they just met a little over a month ago!

I can't believe how old the kids are getting! It seems like only yesterday when Emily was 4 years old, Nick was 18 months old and Matthew was just born. You blink and the next thing you know is that 7 years have passed by. And I cherish every moment of it all!!!

Matthew has a Shadow?

On Saturday afternoon Emily's hamster, Oreo, participated in a hamster race at Petco. Oreo didn't win the race--she actually went the opposite direction on the track!! But after the race, Matthew said he wanted a pet of his own--a hamster. So we looked at them and he decided on a male dwarf hamster that he named Shadow.

Matthew was so excited to have Shadow. He has his cage next to his bed and takes him out every day to play with him. Matthew got a hamster ball to let Shadow roll around the house in. They even sell a track for hamsters so they can roll in a circle and can go really fast!

Shadow is Matthew's birthday present from his Dad (Matthew's birthday is on the 12th--October is a really busy month for us!). Matthew brought pictures of his new pet to school yesterday and told his class all about him--he is so happy.

Looks like we added another pet to our zoo:)

Emily is 11!

Well, Emily is officially 11 years old. Her birthday was last friday and what a busy day it was! She opened her family presents that morning before school. Then Emily had a birthday party sleepover starting Friday evening and ending on Saturday morning--it was a long night:)

The girls got to our house by 6 p.m. and we had pizza and Emily opened her presents. Then we had a volunteer time of 8 p.m. at Feed My Starving Children in Eagan. We had tons of fun helping other kids--we fed 6 children for one year with the amount of food we packaged and boxed!! It felt really good to help others.

When we got back home after FMSC, the girls were excited and full of energy! Needless to say that they didn't get much sleep that night. I went to bed around 1:30 a.m. and they were still playing, watching a movie and talking. The next morning all the girls said that they had a great time and wished that they could stay longer. But I was ready to relax and take a nap!! Emily had a super fun 11th birthday--another cherished memory!